struggles, successes, stories and frustrations from following a dream

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Monthly Archives: March 2012

The past two weeks have somewhat been a blur. Running from location to location, changing clothes every five seconds, trying to organize all the shots of the music video, blah blah blah. I’m pretty happy with it given the number of times I was either told no, didn’t hear a reply, or was told yes and then had a no show in regards to both locations and people. For shits and giggles, I’ll list the high profile asks I made:

Sir Mix-a-Lot: I’ve been trying to get this guy for awhile. In fact, I had originally written a spoof of the Matrix trailers for the first episode (which ended up being Snowmageddon instead) where he would play Morpheus. I got in contact with his manager through a very sweet friend of mine, and ended not hearing back until the first episode was released. At which point his manager was like — oh hey! I met with him and his business partner, spent an hour just kinda shooting the shit, drinking wine and laughing about being not Caucasian. Afterwards, I never heard back about getting Mix in a sketch. Then when I wrote “Seattle” I pinged him again, and then actually talked to Mix at this social media conference he was speaking at (yeah, no comment). Was he being mobbed? No. When I talked to him about the show, he didn’t really know what I was talking about (thanks manager). Like a lot of people, the manager and said partner were more interested in talking about their side business than anything we were supposed to talk about. A lesson I’ve learned rather quickly: People are SELFISH, but in subtle ways. Needless to say, I didn’t get Mix to sing the hook. Am I bitter? Not at all. I understand how things work.

Tom Douglas: I saw him at the gym I belong to (yeah, belong to and go to, very different) doing a cooking demo. I went up to him and introduced myself, sighting that he’d actually already been in a video with Actor Ross, and told him about the show. I didn’t make an ask, but gave him a card and told that one day if I’m successful maybe I could get him to be on the show. Har har. I hate two things: being annoying and kissing ass. That was about 5 weeks ago, and then about 3 weeks ago a friend of mine that works at Dahlia gae me the email of one of his marketing or PR protectors. I sent a very nice email, detailing that I’d only need a very quick cameo. Never heard a reply.

Melinda Gates: Ok she’s the only one that gets off easy. I know she’s too important, worldwide, and busy doing way more important stuff…but hey when you have friends at PATH, someone might know someone somewhere. I got an immediate no chance from said friends and that’s OKAY. I can deal with outright rejection, I’m an actor. I still love her and hope to meet her one day.

Murraythe Bartender: Okay well first of all, he doesn’t have a cell phone and his banana phone gets terrible reception. BUT I met him when I was at my friend’s art show, and she later sent him the song and the ask to be in the video…and he said yes! I then emailed him the info, and proceeded to never hear back. My friend said, hey I’m meeting him for a drink on St. Patty’s day, come join us real quick. Cool. So, in the midst of running around shooting, I stopped in to Whiskey Bar and did my diplomatic duties to lure him in. He said he could do Monday afternoon (two days before it’s supposed to be done), and that he’d let me know what time. I said, cool, I’m yours. No homo. Needless to say, I never heard back.

Detlef Schrempf: I had a couple that were supposedly connected to, but one of my new friends who connected with me offering help after seeing the show seemed to get pretty close. Unfortunately though, he wasn’t in town or something. I still would love to meet him, and apologize for using a shrimp as his body double.

Shawn Kemp: Well, I trolled his restaurant and I think I’m the only one who didn’t see him hanging out there. Through seven steps, I got connected to his friend who apparently sometimes fields requests… but he never picked up the phone. I guess you could say we got DISconnected, aaahhh hahahaha. I’m funny. I just want him to dunk on me, is that too much to ask? That’s seriously a childhood dream.

Dave Matthews: Ok, I didn’t even try this one. I did get kicked out of Trader Joe’s though.

That’s just the PEOPLE I tried to get a midst filming, recording, and everything else… forget locations. Ironically, the only location that I actually had consent to record at was my homies at Marination Mobile. Was it because I’ve consumed about 100 of their tacos in the past 2 years? Maybe. But they were absolutely warm and accommodating, without asking for jack shit back. They even gave me some free tacos…which is of course, why I wanted to film there in the first place.

Anyways, this is way too long… but after what seemed like a very long two weeks, I feel good that I got it done and it didn’t suck. This was me vs myself in every sense and despite how I had drawn up the video originally, it turned out and I triumphed over the large part of me that wanted to give up. The video got posted on the PI with the writer adding

I’m taking a BRIEF moment in this craziness to acknowledge that I really think I’m the craziest mother fucker I know. The idea that I could pull off a music video with 40+ shots and 18 locations in a week is straight insane. Add on top of the at the typhoon that’s sweeping Seattle right now, and any sane person would arrive at the same verdict. But in all this lack of confidence, support, and general encouragement from a majority of my peers there are these little bits of gasoline that spark my little engine.

Two days ago as I was literally like, what is the easy way to shoot this music video and scrap this idea of showing everything I’m rapping about (yeah, I said rapping… it’s a Will Smith parody). Then I got a text from one of my best friends in Florida tell me he’s pumped for the next episode. It wasn’t much, but when there isn’t any real consistent team those little meaningless green lights can turn things around. Then yesterday, a midst snow and rain fall I had scheduled two friends to help shoot the opening shots…which are outdoor … with me riding a bike. The text read “It’s dumping snow over here…still want to do this?” To which I answered “fuck yeah.” Everyone and everything has told me no, I’ve adapted this ‘just press play’ attitude. Sure enough the snow/rain stopped for 3 hours (the sun even came out!), and when we finished the shit weather resumed. It was crazy.

Here I am again today, running around just me and a camera… finding blessings and encouragement from people I barely know. Who knew that kindness from strangers, of all things, would be my coal. Well, off to Queen Anne — where I was sniping a shot of someone’s Prius not but an hour ago.

WAIT! I’m not going to ask for your money. Your spare cash should go to a cause that needs it. What I need is quick, simple and free. The emotional support of friends and strangers has kept me afloat. Not surprisingly, many of my friends want to help but don’t have the time for the actual production. There are three ways I’ve listed below. Over the next month I am going to push the page in an effort to get 3,000 likes by April 1st.

If you’ve enjoyed the show at all, here is a quick checklist to really help me out:
1) Like the Facebook Page right now. This is the biggest sign of support.

2) If you share your favorite clip or an episode (you’re awesome), share it from the Local Brew fan page, or just tag the show in your post. I really do appreciate the kudos to me, but it’s not about me. Remember?

3) One time, just once… share the page itself. You can do this from the bottom of the left column of the page where it says share. You can share on your timeline, on a group page, or in a message to a friend.

I’ve done my best not to vomit ‘like my page’ updates all over facebook without having the content to back it up. I feel I’ve earned the right to vomit a couple times and promise not to abuse your newsfeed. Also, this was written while listening to this throwback — now we both have it stuck in our head.